Beers Mallers - Elder law attorneys providing information on legal matters of guardianship and financial issues relating to nursing home care.

Beers Mallers attorneys can also assist with Medicaid requirements and help navigate difficult family situations.

Beers Mallers - Attorneys at law with offices in Fort Wayne, LaGrange and on the web at BeersMallers.com.

good evening and welcome to PEDs Fort Wayne , I'm glad you're with us tonight on LIFE Ahead.

That's going to be a very interesting show, a topic we've not addressed here before on on this show we're going to be talking about employment and if there are any changes in the laws for twenty twenty five and you know what you might need to know we have some experts that will help guide you through that process here.

>> And I do want to ask did you give us a call if you have questions you can see the number there on the bottom of the screen and that will be up periodically here during this next half hour (969) 27 twenty .

Any question is a good question.

Your opportunity to get some good legal advice?

>> Well, first of all gentlemen, you've met before here on LIFE Ahead and that's Ted Store.

Ted, thank you for coming tonight.

>> Sandy , it's nice to be back.

Good to see you.

Good to see you.

And Ted, by the way, is specializes in elder law.

>> Predominantly we do both Ben and myself.

>> We do litigation and employment.

Oh, you do?

Can we work with businesses and municipal?

Yes.

OK, well I'll read both of them can answer the employment questions and being that's your specialty choose litigation and employment.

>> That's correct Sandy .

OK, well welcome for your first time here on Life and we'll have initiated shortly you won't like it at all.

>> OK, remember this is your show so I would love for you to ask any questions you might have.

Meanwhile I'll ask some questions.

Let's start with you Ted.

You said that twenty twenty five was a year that almost was .

>> What does that mean?

That's a great question.

In twenty twenty four there were a number of federal and state regulations that were proposed but didn't end up getting passed.

So employment lawyers like Ben and I were working very hard and very busily with our clients trying to prepare them for these changes.

So they were two primary changes that were proposed under the federal law.

One was an increase in the salary minimum that was required to pay employees so they were no longer subject to overtime rates and the other and the other was a proposal from the Federal Trade Commission where they were trying to propose a banning of all non compete agreements serious about that?

>> Well, what's the situation on those two issues?

Are they going to go forward or are they dead ?

>> Well, currently both are state courts and other jurisdictions have found that the proposed regulations were not going to be implemented.

However, those proposed regulations still remain out there for consideration and discussion.

>> Now what that means to employees and businesses in our areas are predicting excuse me are particularly involving the wage minimum for salaries.

>> So most of us we get paid on an hourly basis.

If we work more than 40 hours in a week we're then eligible or entitled to overtime.

Yes, there are certain people employees who are not eligible for overtime because they earn a salary.

Yeah, and they also have job duties that fall within a particular classification.

So employers expect to pay those employees a weekly rate to get all the work done that's necessary whether they work 40 hours or 60 hours.

Exactly.

And so the federal government has decided that there's a salary level that those people have to make a minimum amount.

So that way employers aren't taking advantage of employees because most employees want to do a good job for themselves, want to do a good job for their employees and want to do a good job for their employer.

>> So going to work the hours that are necessary so the federal government has a minimum salary level of of six hundred forty four dollars a week and so employees have to make that amount per week in order to be exempt we call it from overtime.

>> Does that count all jobs whether you're a waitress or an attorney?

>> Well, it covers certain job qualifications.

>> We call them the A.P.

their executive administrative and professional.

So a waitress or someone working on a factory line their job duties will never qualify them regardless of how much they may make to be exempt from overtime.

They're always going to be eligible for an overtime rate for weeks where they work more than 40.

Yeah, but people who work in the business in the administrative area are people who work in accounting professionals like Ben and I, those people who are qualified or executives who manage or supervise two or more employees they can be exempt from overtime.

>> They could work 60 hours a week but they have to make that minimum floor.

>> And why that matters in Indiana is because studies show that our wages in Indiana are less than Chicago, less than New York.

>> I know and yes we all do and that's because of where we live and how our businesses work.

So those fluctuating levels really matter to both employers and employees so employers can plan because that could create a substantial burden on their budget because currently if an employee makes about thirty five thousand dollars a year they are eligible to be exempt from overtime.

They meet that salary level but the proposals in twenty twenty four said that that level could increase to forty three five.

That's a substantial eight thousand dollar jump.

That's almost a twenty five percent increase for every employee and and the next level going up was going to take it to a substantially higher rate of almost eleven hundred dollars a week.

>> So that could really impact both employers and their budgeting and financial planning.

Well and and the employees as well so that they know what to anticipate can make their family budgets and know whether they can buy a new car or they can buy this year.

>> Right right.

Ben, how do you think that will affect the employees?

>> We've talked about the employer a lot.

I think Ted has experienced a lot of this with his client and could probably provide more of a comment on that if you want to Ted.

>> Yeah.

And Ben would say that when you have employees they're going to want to know what their salary is.

They're sure no because the other thing the employer may have cutbacks then the employer may not be able to sustain that same employment levels and so they may have to cut back if that's increased because are we going to know when we're going to know in the near future?

What's going to happen is we had a similar issue in 2016 where one of the presidential administrations proposed an increase and that got us to the level we are today.

There was some litigation at that time as well that stayed the regulation that was proposed and then we had a new president come in and they adjusted the rate to be a little more equitable across the country because of living where we do we have lower salary levels than we would do than we would have in any of the big cities or on the coast.

So it's going to impact a state like Indiana and our area substantially so it could impact employees if the employer no longer can keep it same workforce because they've got to pay those increased salary levels.

>> OK. All right, Richard, you're giving me a general answer when you say well eventually it'll be solved.

But we just I mean what can you make a prediction in a month and six months?

>> No, it's going to require a new study by the current administration.

This is the United States Department of Labor in the United States Department of Labor is going to have to look at all the figures in the calculations to come up with a good salary level that's going to be across a country.

>> It's going to be equitable because we have people in Indiana, we've got people in Alabama, we've got people in Georgia.

It has to be equitable for everybody.

And again, you know, in the Midwest we have a little bit lower cost of living.

We have a little bit lower standard of living but we can afford it and it works out well for us.

So the new administration is going to have to take a look at this and decide.

I will tell you if we look at 2016 and what happened, it took about two years after the new administration came in before they reached that level.

>> Correct.

Wow.

And it's a big issue and either of you is this tied in any way to the proposed legislation to maybe not not tax people but get tips?

>> It's entirely possible because we know that the current administration had a political platform where he was indicating our current president Trump on the political trail was indicating he wanted to get rid of taxes, income taxes on tips so people in the restaurant industry, people in the concierge industry, hotels service industry, if they earn tips those wouldn't be taxed if that proposal comes through.

Now we haven't seen any of that legislation yet but that was one of the proposals that President Trump well and then you have to look at whether or not that would affect the employer if they are going to say well, they aren't paying taxes anymore on their tips so I'm going to cut down their basic hourly rate.

>> Is that a possibility?

>> Can't we currently even if you earn tips there's a minimum wage that they have as well.

>> So tips are really something in the wage area when we talk about wage and hour law, there's a minimum salary that employees have to make.

And so if you have a tip credit and there's a very complicated calculation that they do for overtime in regard to tipping and compensation in regard to tipping the proposal is to simplify it.

So if we can simplify it that'll be great.

Maybe not for accountants and lawyers but it would be great for business people and great for the employees.

But we're really just going to have to watch and see what happens with the administration and what to watch every day because things keep changing.

>> You know, there's never no been talk about health savings account HSA, correct?

That's correct.

OK, how does that work?

Well, it's tax season.

I don't know.

You're probably aware that people often this time of year are starting to think about maybe what they want to do in the new year in terms of taking advantage of of tax incentives and one of those tax incentives can be through a health savings account or an HSA.

I'll probably use those interchangeably but a health savings account is an account that you often can get through an employer.

That's what you see most frequently where you can set aside a certain amount of funds that can go towards qualified medical expenses.

Who makes that decision of how much it will be or whether or not a company or an employee is even going to provide that the legislature makes a decision on how much you can put aside percentage and it's not a percentage it's a specific amount.

So for individuals with a qualified insurance plan can set aside up to fifteen hundred dollars a year again for or I'm sorry it's forty three hundred dollars a year I'm thinking the minimum forty three hundred dollars a year and then for a family plan that can put up to eight thousand five hundred and fifty dollars a year.

OK ok thank you.

>> Into to carry on with what Ben was saying that's pretax money so OK ok so an employee can save money with their bottom line even by paying themselves using an HSA account so it's a very nice benefit.

>> Yeah it's a nice savings.

>> Are employers expected in any way to match that or no they only do that with like one case they're not required to it is an option and a benefit if an employer chooses to do to provide that one additional benefit of an say is that the money is yours if an employer offers a benefit of an HSA and you decide to leave that employment, you still get to keep that account and another benefit is if you start this account twenty twenty four it's going to roll over into twenty twenty five OK they always roll over so if you've worked someplace for five years and they've you know they've been taking out of your check money for the HSA that's still going to be there.

>> That's not going to know it is maybe at the end of the year, correct.

>> It is yours once you contribute it.

Well how about other ways of saving?

You know, I mentioned four one KS what other way can people so there's a very similar account as well to an HSA called a flexible spending.

So you may be I've heard that term before or an FSA that account is a little different than the HSA in the sense that it is specifically tied to an employer.

It's a benefit that an employer provides.

So if you go start a job and they offer an FSA account you can contribute money that to account often you see employers also contributing money, sometimes even matching the money you apply to it.

The amounts that you can put in that account are less than what you can put in an HSA.

However, I think the reason for that is that with an FSA flexible spending account the money doesn't roll over from year to year.

Oh yes.

>> So it's a use it or lose it policy.

Yeah.

So what would an employee get both of them would they say to the employer OK I want to sign up for an HSA and a flexible spending?

>> That's a great question.

A tradition HSA and a traditional FSA you cannot have both at the same time you make a decision which one?

>> However there is kind of an exception to that you can have a traditional HSA.

You can start that if an employer offers it or if you just want to start it on your own and then you can also have what's called a limited limited purpose flexible spending, limited purpose.

What's that mean?

So certain things you can spend it on.

>> Correct.

It's kind of self-explanatory but certain expenses you can you can spend on what that would be dental and eye care where with expenses on the HSA account would be your medical expenses.

>> Oh OK.

So what you think is health vision in your care what else are we saying.

>> Oh dental OK so they're not necessarily considered to be a health savings account issue.

>> They are health savings account issue however if you are a flexible spending account is kind of just an opportunity to separate and double dip or you can use money on the dental and if you're flexible out of your your limited purpose flexible spending account and then also you can still have your HSA for your kind of traditional big deductible expenses and that would be an individual case where I mean somebody that has a lot of medical issues there maybe they surgery or some issue coming up that year that's going to cost a lot more.

>> You would want to protect your health savings account probably.

>> Absolutely.

And similar to an HSA flexible spending account is tax free.

So the money you put into that is is untaxed.

>> If you do you pay the tax on it though you don't oh you don't know unlike a 401.

>> Or a retirement fund that you're saving for where you often get taxed once you start taking distributions with a health savings account or even a flexible savings account, there's simply pretax savings that you're allowed to use.

And I think the key from what Ben was saying is the flexible account is more flexible.

>> Can you pay for anything out of a flexible so I don't know what groceries car work can you spend you definitely should be careful and even you might think that you could spend on something like a cosmetic surgery and you can or you should definitely make sure before making that big purchase because you can't spend it on things like, you know, go to a store and buy toothpaste or anything like that who would go ask your employer if that's eligible or are there government standards?

>> I think you probably would want to consult your employer but also I don't know if you have an attorney probably and the easiest ways the IRS has guidelines that they put on an IRS Web page and so you OK look there.

And so if you have questions about whether or not your proposed spending falls within the guidelines of either a health savings account or again using the term flexible because that's what it's about the flexible spending account you could always look there the flexible spending account is more so and employer based benefit while the HSA is your own personal savings that you can set aside and then take wherever you want and use whenever you want.

>> But there are no taxes on the distributions only only if you don't use them for health benefits.

>> OK, what if somebody doesn't want to you know, sign up for HSA or flexible spending?

What if they say no I need all of my paycheck because I have car payments and house payments or whatever?

>> What if they don't want to?

>> Well, I've certainly never have heard of an employer that's going to force you into a plan so I'm sure they can't OK, these are voluntary program that are designed to promote savings by the individual, not a requirement from the employer the fact that they're tax exempt who would not want to sign up for them?

>> I think the people who don't sign up for them are exactly the people you were talking about.

>> Perhaps you have you know, you've got another car payment that you've got to make that you weren't expecting and so you need that extra cash rather than sitting.

But there are benefits again to saving that money and all employees can look at their budget for a year.

They can talk with their employer about if I'm putting money into my 401.

Or if I'm putting money into my HSA, how does that impact my Take-Home Pay so you can work with your payroll in order to maximize they can tell you if they take so much out of your check, you know what your checks are going to be because Mr. most employees the important number is that net that gets deposited into your into your account.

>> So you want to make sure that you're maximizing that.

OK, talk to me about four one today's our savings issue.

>> Sure.

Yeah.

Four one KS that is also just like flexible savings account is something that is specifically tied to an employee.

It's a benefit that an employer provides the it's a retirement account though it's not something that like with the flexible savings account it's a user lose it base you if you don't spend the money on medical expenses at the end of the year you're going to lose it for one K is something you're building up hopefully to eventually retire after a number of years the contribution limits for a four one K compared to an HSA or an FSA are significantly higher.

I believe the number for twenty twenty five is now twenty three thousand five hundred.

>> An individual can contribute to it and an employee contribute shouldn't or matching is optional.

>> It's up to them for the employer it's option for an employer isn't required to provide for one care in general and if they do there's no requirement for matching or providing any contribution towards ok all right OK let's talk about what's ahead for twenty twenty five.

>> You brought up the idea that OK we're looking at some changes in twenty twenty five.

>> Do you have any idea what's going to happen here the rest of the year.

Well there are two additional main topics that we saw in twenty twenty four that are going to carry over into twenty twenty five one is still up in the air and that's the idea of non competes.

Oh yeah talk about that you said very common.

>> Well it's more common than what you would expect.

Many employers have employees sign a non compete agreement in order to protect their business interests.

What it says is I'm trusting you to meet with clients, meet with customers, meet with vendors.

I don't want you to quit tomorrow and then use all the goodwill that I've given to you for my business to go out and compete with me or like in your business take some clients with you.

>> Well, lawyers can't have by industry a noncom so it doesn't really matter in my industry but it matters in almost every industry.

>> Think about sales, think about, you know, predominantly sales and predominantly customer oriented businesses.

You want to make sure that the employer wants to protect their legitimate business interests.

>> So the FTC last year said this is a little bit too stringent, it's too pro employer.

So we are going to propose that non competes no longer be legal.

And so the proposal was that you could still protect your confidential information, you can still protect your client base.

>> You just couldn't say you can't go work in the same industry so we're going to watch here in twenty twenty five is where the FTC continues to promote that and what protections are still available for employers.

Some employees may want to continue to watch to determine whether or not they're still bound by a non compete.

So that's something that the FTC, a government agency from Washington, D.C., the federal government agency is going to have to propose and the last thing we saw in twenty twenty four was a regulation that implemented what we call the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and what that means is that expectant mothers and new mothers are given some benefits in their employment just to make it easier for them to return to work and to maintain their employment.

OK, you brought up pregnant women.

How about the fathers?

>> Is there any I don't know, standard or or rule of law, whatever if the father could have paternity leave up to the employer, that's a good question.

>> Typically with paternity leave and in terms of policy on that, that is up to the employer and Ted had brought up the pregnancy pregnant employee Fairness Act and that does not imply that that does not apply to fathers but there are still other laws out there that can provide rights to fathers and paternity, particularly the Family Medical Leave Act.

That is an act that's been in place for a long time that can allows employees when they're dealing with some sort of either themselves a medical issue or a family member.

Yeah, To take an extended leave.

So that is an avenue for for fathers to take without risk of being fired to take getting terminated say and that's what fired the password bodycheck.

Yeah, that's the standard for everything.

>> Figure out how to not get fired exactly.

But but the FMLA exists for new parents and that's both the terms maternity and paternity in our field are a little bit antiquated.

>> We just call new parent leave and Marella and new don't say paternity leave or maternity leave.

>> Right.

Those traditional terms which aren't used generally in the workplace again what are we saying?

>> We call it new parent leave and new parents.

OK, got that.

And that's covered under the family Medical Leave Act and that covers whether there's an adoption or an actual childbirth and that covers both father and mother under the guidelines of the family.

>> OK, all right.

Now we're actually getting close to the end of the show so tell if you can tell our viewers fairly quickly what are the most important things they need to know as employers or employee?

>> What let's talk about employees because we're here at seven thirty on a nice Wednesday evening and so we're anticipating the number of employees I think the employees particularly as Ben said during this tax time, we want the employees to talk with their payroll to do a budget to really look at what they can do and how to maximize the benefits that are provided to them by their employer.

And employers are going to want to continue to watch these regulations because many employers have a non compete if this FTC regulation comes back in, many employers are going to have to substantially adjust what they do in their contracts with their employees so they can maintain their standard of meeting and complying with the law both state and federal.

>> Got it.

All right.

Term and I think, Ted, a key point that Ted's getting at here is it's good to just have transparency between an employee, an employer and an employee should should know what exactly employers are offering in terms of its benefits and feel confident in exercising on those if they would like and obviously based on their means.

But yeah, it's always the importance is transparent between the employer and employee that's for sure.

>> You've both provided us with so much education information we've never had this topic of life ahead.

So it was good to get your input because I'm sure many of our viewers are either employers or employees and if you aren't somebody in your family you can share some of this insight.

Meanwhile, thanks again Ben and Ted for being with us here this evening and to the rest of you, we're going to be right back here next Wednesday night at seven thirty we have that new topic a new guests.

>> Have a great night Beers Mallers - Elder law attorneys providing information on legal matters of guardianship and financial issues relating to nursing home care.

Beers Mallers attorneys can also assist with Medicaid requirements and help navigate difficult family situations.

Beers Mallers - Attorneys at law with offices in Fort Wayne, LaGrange and on the web at BeersMallers.com.